The Edenton Tea Party: October 25, 1774: Story and Facts

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The Edenton Tea Party: October 25, 1774 is a North Carolina story with a documented core at Edenton (Historic Edenton), Chowan County. The sources are named below.

HistoryKind of story
4Named sources
Eastern Plain & Inner BanksRegion
Oct 27Checked, 2026

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The Edenton Tea Party: October 25, 1774

On October 25, 1774, fifty-one women of Edenton put their names to a pledge to stop buying British tea and cloth, one of the earliest organized political acts by women in the colonies. Visitors today are shown a teapot on a cannon near the 1767 courthouse that recalls it.

What The Record Shows

NCpedia's entry by Ansley Herring Wegner (2015) gives October 25, 1774 for the resolution by 51 women, says it was signed and mailed to England, and notes that a London newspaper account appeared January 16, 1775 with a drawing that showed the women unflatteringly. The same entry says the event went unrecorded in North Carolina and became known only after 1827, and that the popular belief of 51 women gathering at Elizabeth King's house is an error: the house was too small and the wording points to an agreement, not a meeting. NC DNCR's Edenton Tea Party page and its marker A-22 post (marker cast in 1940, on West Queen Street) give the same date and describe the women drafting resolves that were sent to England. NCpedia's biography of Edward Vail uses October 24, 1774, so one NCpedia source differs by a day. The DNCR day-in-Edenton post calls it the first recorded women's political demonstration in America, which is a claim we repeat only as that source's. Historic Edenton State Historic Site includes the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse; the visitor center is at 108 North Broad Street (Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

Sources: NCpedia: Edenton Tea Party (Ansley Herring Wegner, 2015); NC DNCR: The Edenton Tea Party; NC DNCR: Edenton Tea Party (A-22) marker.

A Note

The women signed a pledge; the sources do not say they met at any one named house. Sources also differ by a day on the date, so both are shown where they appear.

Its home: Historic Edenton State Historic Site. Official page.

On this site: Eastern Plain and Inner Banks Events.

Looked for and Not Found

No official dncr.nc.gov Historic Edenton landing page was read; the Edenton visit post is the home link.

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Is the story of The Edenton Tea Party: October 25, 1774 true?

Is this a legend?

It is a story with a documented core. The facts are listed on this page with their sources.

Where do these facts come from?

From the named sources listed on this page: NCpedia: Edenton Tea Party (Ansley Herring Wegner, 2015); NC DNCR: The Edenton Tea Party; NC DNCR: Edenton Tea Party (A-22) marker.

Sources

Read on October 27, 2026. Stories are for fun; the facts come from these sources. How we check: editorial standards; spot a mistake? tell us.

Cite this page: It's North Carolina, “The Edenton Tea Party: October 25, 1774”, itsnorthcarolina.com/legends/edenton-tea-party/ (updated 2026-10-27). By the It's North Carolina editorial team. Free to quote with attribution and a link to this page; data and tables are licensed CC BY 4.0.